


Through Oblivion

by WingsofAltair



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Adorable Pavel Chekov, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Annoyed Leonard "Bones" McCoy, BAMF Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay is Pissed, Coffee, Confused Spock (Star Trek), Don't Fuck with the Captain's Coffee, Dubious Science, Flirty James T. Kirk, Gen, Keenser Climbs on Everything, Leonard "Bones" McCoy is So Done, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Time Travel Shit Show, lots of coffee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23263486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingsofAltair/pseuds/WingsofAltair
Summary: Time travel isn't a simple thing. One action can send ripples through universes, tearing apart the space-time continuum. It wasn't quite what Spock Prime intended, but it's what happened. Now because of it, Captain Kathryn Janeway has to make a choice. A choice that could jeopardize her crew from ever getting home, but could change the fate of an entire universe.
Relationships: Chakotay & Kathryn Janeway, James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James T. Kirk & Spock, Kathryn Janeway & James T. Kirk, Kathryn Janeway & Tom Paris, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott/USS Enterprise, Spock/Nyota Uhura, Tom Paris/B'Elanna Torres
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter One

It all started on what was a (relatively) normal mission for the crew of the Enterprise-A.

The ship had received a mission to investigate an anomaly that had appeared in space about thirty light years from Cestus III. They had arrived at its location around four days ago and the entire ship had been working vehemently on studying it ever since. The bridge crew was no different.

Uhura was busy analyzing transmissions originating from small probes which had come from the anomaly. She was able to determine that they were most likely broadcasting scientific information, and that it was in a language that belonged to a species no one had ever seen before. She took decoding it as a personal challenge and was very absorbed in her work.

Sulu was constantly working to try to get the closest distance to the anomaly as safely possible, without getting sucked in by its fluctuating gravimetric pull. Chekov was trying to scan the probes in an effort to get more information on their alien technology.

Spock, and the majority of the science officers for that matter, were practically having a field day with all the data they were getting. Many crew members were even _willingly_ working double shifts just to help discover more about the strange anomaly. If their data was correct, the scientists believed that it defied many of the 'laws' believed to be true about similar subspace phenomena. If Kirk didn't know any better, he might have said that he caught the glimpse of a small smile on his first officer's face.

The captain secretly enjoyed times like these, when the crew got to indulge their scientific curiosity. There seemed to be a sort of energy coursing through them, exciting the ship down to her hull plating with possibilities of the unknown and pure unbridled discovery. Although he knew he wasn't really needed on missions like this one-and was honestly bored out of his mind-they were his favorite type of missions. On these missions, there never was the pain of losing crew members, having to talk to families about their loved ones which they would never see again. There was no second guessing decisions made in less than seconds, trying to see better possibilities and more options years later. There were no nightmares that would continue to haunt him, reminding him of his mistakes. _'No'_ Kirk thought, clearing his head, _'Although these missions are the best, **those** missions were just as necessary'_. Kirk was pulled from the darker turn his thoughts had taken when Spock spoke up.

"Captain, I am detecting another vessel emerging from the anomaly."

"On screen, Commander."

Expecting to see another one of the dark pink rectangular probes that had been occasionally coming through for the past couple of days, Kirk was shocked. He watched surprised when a ship vaguely resembling a federation shuttle emerged from the wispy green and purple event horizon. Once it moved away from the funnel shaped corona of the anomaly, his officers scrambled to get readings on it.

The ship had an almost triangular shape and a much sleeker design than any shuttle the captain had ever seen. The front window tessellated to form a design, and the engines of the craft vaguely resembled fins in the way they stuck out from the ship's body. It was painted in the standard federation gray, but with a red stripe running along the side.

"Captain, the craft is broadcasting a distress signal in federation standard. It's definitely one of ours." Uhura announced, sounding slightly baffled.

Kirk stared at the strange ship, the cursive writing saying ' _delta flyer_ ' enlarged on screen. While it looked like a federation ship, the style was….unique, to say the least. He didn't need to check the records to know that no federation ship was currently, or ever, built like that.

A beeping noise sounded from Spock's station. "I am detecting one human life sign on board, captain, but it is very weak. If we do not assist them, I do not believe that they have a lot of time left."

Making a quick decision, the captain gave his order. "Very well. Beam them directly to sick bay and tractor the ship into shuttle bay two. Send a couple security officers down to sick bay, just in case."

"Aye keptin" Chekov answered.

After he got confirmations from Chekov and Sulu that both the beaming and the tractoring of the vessel were successful. Kirk stood up.

"Well, I think i'm going to go down to sickbay to check on our 'guest'. Mr. Spock, you have the bridge."

"Aye captain" Spock responded, sitting down in the captain's chair while simultaneously pulling up the readings from the anomaly.

Kirk walked into a rather chaotic scene in sickbay. On his left side there was an andorian crewman holding what looked to be a pretty painful burn on his left arm. He had a lone nurse treating him, who seemed to be a bit distracted. He nodded towards his crewman and winked at the nurse before turning his attention to the right side of the room, where the real action was happening. The security officers Kirk had sent down earlier were standing to the side, relatively at ease once they realised that the patient was not a current threat. Various devices were beeping frantically while completing their scans. McCoy was barking orders at his nurses, of which there were at least three scurrying about place to place. Kirk slightly stood up on his toes to get a better look at the patient they were all flocking around.

He was not able to see her face due to a nurse blocking his sight, but he was able to see her uniform. The majority of it was black except for a large red stripe at the top, going across her shoulders. He could see part of a purple undershirt and a gold and silver starfleet badge over her heart. Once the nurse moved, he was only able to see half of her face because of a large blood flow coming from the right side of her head. From what he could see though, she had auburn hair and he estimated her to be around her early to mid thirties. Kirk tried to sneakily take a few steps closer to get a better look. However, the captain was not as inconspicuous as he thought because Bones quickly noticed his movement.

"Jim, get out of here! This is a sickbay, NOT an interrogation room! Stop loitering, damnit!" McCoy practically shouted before calling on one of his nurses to bring him a dermal regenerator. Kirk took the message and left, making a mental note to come by later, and returned to the bridge.

Meanwhile, in shuttle bay two, Scotty was practically buzzing from excitement. While he was able to determine that it was definitely a federation vessel, it was unlike any starfleet ship that he'd ever seen. From the front window design to the fin like protrusions, the craft definitely had style. And warp engines. They managed to fit a _warp engine_ into a craft that small, which was practically unheard of! And it wasn't just a weak, slow engine like one might expect, but from the look of it, he believed it could even reach speeds as high as warp seven! The Enterprise herself couldn't get much higher than that! It also seemed to have phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, and-to top it all off-was probably highly maneuverable. The whole package rolled into one compact ship! However, his excitement was soon tampered when he tried to access the ship's computer system and its logs.

If he didn't know any better, he'd say the darn thing was sassing him.

Despite trying various bypasses and every trick in the book, his efforts to access the system proved to be fruitless. Each and every time, the computer quipped back with "Unauthorized User Detected: Access Denied".

At least until one curious, and slightly bored (though he would never admit it), Vulcan engineer decided to come on board.

Scotty whipped around at warp speed, hitting his head up against the craft's dashboard when he heard the computer's voice activate.

"Authorized User Detected: Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. Welcome back, Commander."

Quietly grumbling about the bruise he was sure to have, Scotty met the eyes of the equally confused Vulcan. Still maintaining eye contact, the chief engineer flipped open his communicator.

"Scotty to bridge. Captain, I think ya'd better come down here."

Once he got there, Scotty filled Kirk in on the basic happenings. He proposed a hypothesis that due to the ship's internal sensors being damaged in the anomaly that brought it here, it falsely identified the vulcan crewman as 'Lieutenant Commander Tuvok'. Afterwards, Scotty went back to trying to glean information from the delta flyer's computer. The system was now more generous due to recognizing 'Tuvok', but not as revealing as Scotty would have liked. Since he did not have the necessary access codes, a majority of the information was still locked out. This left Kirk to talk to the vulcan, who was still a bit shocked, though it didn't show.

"I don't believe that we're acquainted, what is your name, crewman?"

"Junior Grade Lieutenant Sunak, Sir. I transferred to the Enterprise two weeks ago." The vulcan answered, standing perfectly at attention. Kirk nodded in response.

"So…" the captain began "The system recognized you as a Lieutenant Commander Tuvok..?" Kirk half-asked, trying to solve the mystery and find any connections. The lieutenant seemed to recognize the name and its relation to him.

"Tuvok is my son's name. However…" The vulcan trailed off, looking troubled.

"However..?"

Pulled out of his thoughts, the lieutenant regained his composure. "That is not possible. My son would only have been around seven human years old."

"Would have been?" Kirk inquired, despite sensing his crewman's somber tone. He needed to confirm his suspicions as fact.

"He…" The vulcan flinched slightly. "...perished..when Vulcan was destroyed."

"I see." Kirk replied solemnly, understanding the vulcan's hesitance. Staying on a ship that recognizes you as your dead son must be a painful reminder. "I'm sorry for your loss." Sunak tilted his head in acknowledgment. Kirk looked to the side and sighed, clearing his mind from the regret he still felt over not being able to save the once proud planet.

However, the silence was soon interrupted because of Scotty's muted yell from the front of the flyer. "Get down from there, you! The console's not a bloody chair!"

The moment broken, Kirk spoke up once again. "Well, it seems that our guest doesn't just come from another time, but another reality altogether."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the purposes of the plot, I had to make a couple minor changes to canon. Since Tuvok was born in 2264 and Vulcan was destroyed in 2258, I had to make him a couple of years older (since vulcan lifespans are twice that of humans, it honestly wouldn't be that much of a difference to him). Also, I put his father in starfleet since Tuvok did say that his parents pushed him into joining starfleet. It would make sense if they themselves were also starfleet officers (and it beats the purpose of all this extrapolation if his father is not on the Enterprise). While Sunak is honestly not gonna play that big of a role in the story, I still wanted to try to be as realistic as possible.This is my first story that I'm actually publishing, so please feel free to tell me how crappy my writing is. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Also, if there's any interactions that you would like to see between the Voyager and Enterprise crew in the future, please tell me and I'll try to write them in!


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scotty manages to find some information on the ship's universe-travelling guest, and Kirk is left with a lot to think about.

After effectively getting kicked off the craft by Scotty, Kirk decided to make a trip to sick bay to get a status update on their universe-travelling guest. When he walked in, Bones was nowhere in sight, but the only patient in sickbay was the human female. With no better name to call her by, Kirk began to refer to her as 'Red' in his head, due to her uniform. While he waited for McCoy, he decided to try to piece together some more of the puzzle based on what he had learned.

' _Since Tuvok is alive from where she's from, that means that she has to be from a parallel universe as well as from a different time. Could it be the prime universe, where Ambassador Spock came from? And if so, what's her reason for being here? Was it just an accident, or is Red here on a mission?'_ The captain continued to stare at the enigma before him. He noticed something lightly gleaming on the right side of her neck. Kirk gently turned her head to get a better look at her collar. ' _Four pips? It's true that ranking systems change all the time, but four pips does seem pretty important. Commander at least? Maybe even a fellow cap-'_

"Oh my god, Jim" Kirk was brought out of his musings by McCoy, whom he did not hear enter the room. "She's not even conscious and you're already planning how to flirt with her!"

Kirk stared blankly at him for a second, the words not quite registering while his mind was still lost in thought. Once the meaning hit, he responded at warp speed "What? NO! I was just trying to guess who she is!"

"Uhuh..." Bones responded, sounding very convinced.

Kirk just huffed, knowing that arguing with Bones was a battle he couldn't win. Instead he decided to change the topic. "What's her condition and when can you wake her up, doc?"

McCoy shot him a look that clearly said ' _You're really THAT desperate?'_. Kirk glared in response, causing McCoy to sigh before continuing. "Well she had a compounded fracture in her arm, which I've healed, but my main concern was the head wound she had. She fractured her skull, which I also managed to repair, but the trauma caused cerebral edema. I gave her a sedative to keep her out while the swelling goes down. Normally I wouldn't want to wake her for at least 24 hours, BUT" The doctor cut off Jim before he could make his inevitable protest "Since I know you're not gonna leave me alone until she's up, I can do it in 12 if she takes the next day easy."

"Understood doc, keep me informed" With nothing left to say, Kirk spun on his heel and walked towards the sickbay doors. As he left he spared a glance at a digital clock which read 15:38.

"Aye Captain" The doctor responded, muttering "impatient brat" once Kirk was out of hearing range.

After five hours of bridge duty, in which the captain was highly distracted but still managed to get a couple of reports done, Kirk's shift was finally over. He was debating whether he should pay another visit to shuttle bay two or if he should just go back to his quarters and rest up. He wanted to question their time travelling guest ASAP, and the twelve hour limit McCoy imposed would lift at exactly 03:38 in the ship's time. Since he wanted to be there on the dot, and actually awake enough to ask his questions, he probably needed to get some rest early. However, his decision was made for him when he heard his communicator go off. Flicking it open, Kirk answered and immediately started making his way to the shuttle bay.

When he got there, he found that Spock had been summoned as well. The vulcan inclined his head as a way of greeting, and Kirk gave a short nod back. Judging by the obscene amount of empty coffee cups lying around, the engineer wouldn't be sleeping any time soon. Which sadly meant, Kirk probably wouldn't be either.

"Hi captain, you're here!" He cheerily began. "So we were finally able to decode a couple of data files stored in the computer system! While it still is a starfleet computer, all of the encryption algorithms are far beyond anything we have today, and most programmers probably wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of it. It's been going slow, but luckily I had something similar to compare the system to, or else we would have gotten absolutely nowhere... " the engineer trailed off, eyes widening when he realized what he had just accidentally revealed.

"Scotty?" Kirk questioned. He made eye contact and held it, trying to intimidate the engineer to tell him what he meant. Scotty looked away after a couple of seconds.

"Well, okay, I may have taken a little scan of the _Jellyfish_ 's systems before she was destroyed."

"A scan?" Kirk stared at him disbelievingly, not even sure when he would have had the time to take such a scan _._

"...just a wee one. But Captain, it hasn't been a problem! In fact, the darn thing was completely useless until today! I gotta say, I probably wouldn't have been able to decode anythin' without it, so lookie, no harm done!"

Kirk sighed and just accepted what happened. ' _It's not his fault this timeline is messed up anyways'_ Besides, if he wasn't able to even use it, it couldn't have been that big of a deal, right?

"So, what were you able to find?" The captain finally asked.

"We were able to find a couple of things out," Scotty answered, looking quite relieved that he wasn't in trouble for his scan. "I managed to find one log that didn't ask for security codes to view, and simply accepted 'Commander Tuvok's' authorization. So apparently, our visitor is from the year 2375, among other things" Scotty said while rapidly working the computer to pull up said log. "Aye, here it is" Kirk turned his attention towards the female voice that began playing around the ship.

"Captain's log, stardate 51389.7. Due to the atmospheric conditions of the planet, beaming down was impossible and I was forced to take the delta flyer down to the surface. While a shuttle would have sufficed, since the conditions only block signals and are not turbulent, Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Paris felt that the delta flyer would still be the best option. Despite my first officer's misgivings about the Xaernans only being open to negotiations if they were with me directly, the mission has been a complete success. They were very accommodating and reasonable, and I was able to acquire over 700 metric tons of deuterium. Further information about the species and the trade deal are included in my mission report. The ore will be transported to _Voyager_ tomorrow morning via a series of Xaernan cargo ships." There was a slight pause in the recording.

"Additionally, I was able to learn about an interesting anomaly from a Xaernan scientist who I befriended, Tora. She informed me of a semi-stable one sided 'wormhole' that appeared in their planet's atmosphere, just under two weeks ago. While they were able to send probes through it, neither the probes nor their transmissions were able to return. The only thing able to pass back through to this side intact is light. The Xaernan's have devised a way to transmit data using light flashes from the probes, however, it is very slow. They were able to come to three main conclusions with the data they obtained though.

The first is that while the endpoint of the wormhole is fixed and stable, the internal dynamics are most definitely not. They quickly found out that none of the probes larger than around twenty seven meters in length managed to make it through intact. This is most likely due to multiple vortexes and the chaotic opposing forces inside the anomaly which literally pull pieces of larger crafts apart. Smaller craft are better able to 'ride the storm' and not get caught between two or more forces. The second finding is that the gravimetric pull of the anomaly is not constant and fluctuates rapidly. It can be close to zero and allow probes to get within a couple meters of the event horizon, or it can change on a dime and pull probes in with a force far stronger than their engines can make up for."

While the first half of the log was recorded in a more authoritative voice, in the second half, Kirk could hear hints of wonder and genuine awe at the discoveries the captain talked about. ' _Probably was a science officer of some kind before going into command'_ the captain added to his mental profile, before tuning back into the log.

"Their final discovery is the most important discovery about the 'wormhole', at least in my opinion. Based on the stars that they are able to see on the other side, they calculated that the wormhole terminates somewhere in the beta quadrant, around 59,000 light years from where we currently are. If we could just understand more about it, a wormhole like this could potentially get us home _much_ faster. Because of this, I plan on investigating it further. End log."

There was silence among the ship's senior officers as they contemplated what they just heard. Even Spock had an eyebrow raised. After a couple of seconds in which they only sounds came from the engineers working on the ship, Kirk spoke up.

"Just confirming, but, she said 59,000 light years, right?"

"Aye captain, I believe she did." One awed chief engineer answered, still slightly in shock, despite already having listened to the recording numerous times.

The captain exhaled one long breath while he thought. While Kirk was expecting future ships to get faster and explore further, he was definitely not expecting them to reach that far in only one hundred years. Though something about it still felt off to him. ' _Why would a starfleet science vessel ever need to directly trade for deuterium? Wouldn't other ships in the fleet be better suited to do that trade? It's true that I don't know the first thing about how big their ship is or how much energy they need, but carrying that much deuterium on_ _**any**_ _ship seems almost like...stockpiling? It would probably take up a lot of space. Especially if a "series" of cargo ships is needed to carry it. Why couldn't they just have another federation vessel come and take some of it? This doesn't quite add up.'_

"What about the other log, Scotty?" Kirk asked, trying to get as much information as possible before leaping to any conclusions.

"The other one seems to have been a personal communication, and was not encrypted as heavily as the logs and reports are. By comparing it with the data I got from the _Jellyfish,_ I was able to develop a decryption key. It should be done any minute now."

While they waited, Spock questioned Keenser about some of the technology they discovered. Kirk occupied himself by watching an engineer take apart a futuristic-looking phaser. They only had to wait around five minutes before the ship's chief engineer loudly declared:

"Aye! I got it!"

Scotty worked a console so that he could play the newly decrypted transmission on the ship's viewscreen. The right side of the screen showed the woman that Kirk now knew was a captain, while the left was blank until the call's recipient answered.

"Captain?" A confused looking blond haired human appeared. He was wearing an identical red uniform to the one the woman was wearing, but his uniform only had two pips on the collar. He appeared to be standing in his own quarters, though the room was larger than any crew cabin on the _Enterprise._

"Hello lieutenant," She responded, slightly amused at the dumbstruck look on his face. It wasn't often that his captain called officers who were off-duty personally, so he was shocked, to say the least.

Just as she was about to continue, Paris interrupted, seeming to realize what she was calling about. "Oh! We won! A whole month's worth of rations!" he whisper-yelled as he leaned in closer to the screen, looking around the room as if for some invisible observer.

"Oh really?" Janeway asked, caught slightly off-guard.

"I don't know how you did it, but you were less than three hours off! It took exactly 76 hours and forty three minutes after you left ship for Tuvok to get annoyed enough of Neelix to visibly break his composure. AND it _was_ an eyebrow twitch, just as you predicted! Not even Vorik managed to get that close, and he's _vulcan!_ How did you do that?!" Tom asked, astonished enough to almost break his self induced whispering tone.

"Captain's intuition." Janeway replied evenly, hiding a smirk by taking a sip of her drink, which was in a Starfleet mug.

"B-but…." Tom huffed. "You know, I'm honestly surprised that you're still letting me run the crew betting ring after you caught me. That's very un-starfleet of you, if I do say so myself"

"That is a lot, coming from you Mr. Paris" She said with an unreadable expression. Tom flinched slightly, fearing that maybe he'd finally pushed it too far. Despite getting away with his shenanigans over the years, this might be it for him. He might finally have to face the 'Wrath of Janeway', as the crewman on the lower decks coined it. However, his fears were soon alleviated when she continued.

"Well, what can I say? Now that I'm in on it, if the crew wishes to throw away their replicator rations, they might as well go towards a good cause." Feeling relieved, Paris replied in his usual style.

"Such as your coffee addiction, captain?"

"Such as my coffee addiction." She affirmed and hid her growing grin behind another sip of her beverage, which Kirk now guessed was coffee.

"And it's good for crew morale". Her smile grew more somber. "Especially with the situation we're in, I wouldn't dare to take that from them"

Paris began to protest, sensing her self-placed blame.

"Cap-"

"Anyway lieutenant," Janeway cut him off, authority back in her voice. "If Starfleet has a problem, I might not have to answer for it for another sixty years. Unless, we find a shortcut, which brings me to the reason I really called you."

' _Sixty years?!'_ Kirk thought to himself. He spared a glance at his first officer, who had both eyebrows raised in response. When he looked towards Scotty, the captain wished that he had brought a camera, just to capture the comically dumbfounded look on his chief engineer's face.

"Captain?" Paris asked, subconsciously standing at attention.

"I wanted to ask, do you believe that I can modify the delta flyer's sensors to be able to detect chroniton particles?"

"Chroniton particles?"

"Yes."

There was silence over the communication as he contemplated the unusual question. "...I don't see why not, but B'Elanna would probably know better…..However, I don't quite see why you would need to.." his eyes widened in realization "Captain! Please don't tell me that you're planning what I think you'r-"

Janeway raised a hand, effectively silencing him.

"I have to do this Mr. Paris. I've already considered all of the options. This anomaly might present an incredible opportunity to get home, and it would be foolish to brush it off. However, we need to make sure that it actually leads to the right time period, so that we don't end up in the same situation as last time. Sending a probe would be very tedious since the anomaly interferes with signals we'd need to remotely pilot it. We could easily lose it, and that would be a waste of equipment and sensors. There's no way that I would risk bringing _Voyager_ close to it because if something goes wrong, the ship might get torn apart and scattered over the space-time continuum just due to its sheer size and all the chaotic forces. Someone in a smaller ship, such as a shuttle or the delta flyer, would have a far higher chance of surviving if something does go wrong, and they're pulled into the anomaly. The problem is, I still can't ask any of my crew members to risk their lives for something that's not a guarantee. While I know some would volunteer, this is a risk that as captain, I'd rather take on my own.

I don't plan on charging in recklessly. I called you tonight just to see if it was possible, and keep my options open. I will talk more about it with Chakotay and Seven in the morning."

After a moment, Paris sighed.

"There's no way any of us are going to be able to argue with you, is there?"

"No." She answered resolutely.

While their captain tended to be diplomatic and calm in most situations, the crew knew that she had a stubborn streak that could put a klingon to shame. Once she set her mind on something, it was practically a done deal.

"...you could use a good pilot." The helmsman offered, trying a different approach.

"I'm sure I could" She answered, smiling wryly. "However, I don't think even your piloting skills would be enough to get us out in case something went wrong. I'd rather not risk any more senior officers than necessary. Janeway out"

When the transmission's recording ended, there was complete silence around the small ship. All of the other crewmen had stopped working to eavesdrop on the decrypted transmission. After a couple of moments, Scotty decided to speak up.

"Well then…." he began, still in shock. He regained his usual confidence once he saw that his officers had stopped working. "C'mon! Back to work, the lot of you!" The officers snapped out of their trance, and begrudgingly got back to work. The ship was soon filled once again with the sounds of devices beeping and electrical tools working.

While that was certainly informative, it also left more questions than answers. Kirk needed time to think, and to process everything that he had learned. After sticking around engineering for a bit and talking with Spock, Kirk opted to pace around his ship. Although he was tired, he knew that sleep would elude him that night. He had _way_ too much to think about. Looking at a clock, he saw that it read 01:22.

' _Only two more hours to go'_

Once the link was over and Janeway couldn't hear him, Tom flopped on his couch. He looked up at the ceiling and muttered.

"Chakotay's gonna be _pissed._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I know Janeway explaining herself in that much detail to Paris, of all people, is kind of OOC, I wanted to get rid of as much exposition as possible. That way the fun can begin! I was planning on adding another decryptable transmission where she would explain her reasoning to the entire senior staff, but I thought that it would be a bit redundant to write. And also not the most exciting to read. Anyways, the purpose of all this exposition is so that the Enterprise crew can find out more about the future in the prime timeline. Janeway probably would not tell them anything willingly due to the temporal prime directive (and threat of temporal investigations). Since I didn't want to dance around it for the first couple of chapters, so I decided to create a scenario where the Enterprise crew is able to find out enough so that the temporal prime directive has already been violated by the time Janeway wakes up.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janeway wakes up on the Enterprise and a new threat to the ship soon emerges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Star Trek. If I did, there would be more crossovers. And warp core explosions. Lots, of warp core explosions. Oops.

The fact that Kirk did not get any of the sleep that he was planning on did not deter him from strolling into sickbay at exactly 03:38. The room certainly looked different with the darker lighting of the ship’s night mode and the lack of hustling crew members that would be witnessed in the day. It looked almost...peaceful. 

Almost. 

If not for the sight of a frazzle-haired,  _ very  _ tired looking McCoy who rapidly strode in a couple minutes after Kirk. The light from the ship’s corridors illuminated his spiked up hair and cast a shadow over his undoubtedly pissed-off face. 

  
  


A regular McCoy was a grumpy McCoy. 

  
  
  
  


A tired McCoy was on a  _ whole _ new level. 

  
  
  


Kirk tried to keep that fact in mind, and chose his next words wisely.

“Soooooo, doc” he began quietly, trying to get the doctor’s attention. McCoy squinted at him for a second before the other man’s presence registered in his sleep-fogged mind. Once it did, and he realized what his captain was there for, the doctor exploded.

“I was sleeping _ quite  _ happily until I got an alert that  _ someone  _ decided to come in here! Here I was, expecting it to be a major medical emergency of some kind, like a dying radiation-poisoned crewmember! Or at least a severe case of tellarite flesh-eating fungus! But what do I find?  **_YOU!_ ** ” 

Jim was silent for a minute. He watched McCoy work on a console to call off the alerts to his emergency staff members, who were also awakened when Kirk triggered sickbay’s sensors. After a minute, when he believed that Bones had calmed down enough, Kirk quietly spoke up. 

“....you did tell me twelve hours though.”

“God-fucking-damnit, Jim!” McCoy huffed, more angry with himself for not anticipating that Jim would make it there, exactly on the dot, twelve hours later, despite it being the middle of the night! 

McCoy stalked off to the other side of the sickbay, eager to get this over with so that he could go back to sleep. He angrily loaded a hypospray while keeping an icy glare locked on his captain. Once it was loaded, he stomped back over to where the incapacitated future captain was.

The hypospray made a small hissing noise when Bones pressed it to the side of the captain’s neck. For a moment, it appeared as if it did absolutely nothing. After a couple of seconds she gasped and rapidly sat up. Before McCoy could stop her, she flopped back down due to a sharp pain stemming from the back of her head.

Groaning slightly, Janeway tried to open her eyes. Despite the sickbay having dimmed lighting in its night mode, it still seemed way too bright for her. Opening her eyes felt like staring straight into the Vulcan suns. Her eyes eventually adjusted, but the process was slower than she would have liked.

While her vision was still blurry, she slowly tried to sit up again, pushing through the nausea from the bile pooling in her stomach. She felt warm hands touching her back, helping to guide her into a sitting position. Trying to figure out where she was, she tuned in to her surroundings. The smell of disinfectant assailed her senses, and she could hear the faint beeping of a medical tricorder. She was in sickbay, that was for sure.

Though something felt off.

She just wasn't quite sure what. 

Once her eyes finally adjusted to the light enough for her to clearly make out her surroundings, she quickly realized what.

It sure as hell wasn't  _ Voyager's _ sickbay.

Realizing that the person who helped her sit up was not  _ Voyager's  _ doctor, or her first officer who might have come to check on her, she turned her head to see who it was. She was greeted with the sight of one concerned (and angry?) looking, Doctor Leonard McCoy. And to his right, standing, was one Captain James T. Kirk.  _ The _ Captain James. T. Kirk.

She was in sickbay alright. Sickbay _on the_ _Enterprise._

Despite the absurdity of her situation, only one thought came to mind.

' _ I'm going to have absolute hell to pay once temporal investigations catches a whiff of this' _

  
  


When Janeway got over her initial shock, she realized that the Captain was speaking.

"-oy, and I'm James. T Kirk, but you can call me Jim." She noticed that he was smiling playfully with that last bit. "What is your name?"

In a daze, she almost answered. However, her starfleet training kicked in and thankfully stopped her. She took a second to collect herself, and bring her usual confidence and authority back.

“Sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?” Kirk asked, looking innocently confused. He feared that maybe she had some form of amnesia from her recent head wound. McCoy on the other hand, knowing the extent of her injuries, looked more sceptical. 

Janeway took one more look around the room, just to truly confirm where she was. Her surroundings and the people in front of her still screamed ‘the 23rd Century’. She straightened her back to the best of her ability and squared her chin defiantly before answering.

“The temporal prime directive.”

“The  _ what  _ now?!” 

McCoy cut in, flabbergasted.  _ ‘If that thing is what it sounds like, it sure as hell didn’t stop those romulans and the old hobgoblin from going on a time travel doohickey adventure!’ _

“The temporal prime directive.” She repeated, then started explaining once she realized the two  _ Enterprise  _ officers were still kind of confused. The directive wasn’t official in their time.

“All starfleet personnel are forbidden from interfering with historical events, and must not alter the timeline." She grimaced slightly, looking apologetic.

"As much as I would like to tell you, I can’t. The less you know about the future, the better.” 

McCoy guffawed while Kirk awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, wondering just how he was going to explain all that had transpired while she was unconscious. 

By taking apart some of the delta flyer’s technology, they managed to learn quite a bit about ‘the future’. Based on what they had found out from accessing the ship’s system, the captain was probably from the other Spock’s timeline. If he was going to explain things, that meant that Kirk would also have to talk about Nero’s effect on his universe as well.

“Well, you see….” 

Kirk launched into an explanation of the differences in his timeline from what he believed to be hers. Bones cut in a couple of times, to correct him on certain details. Once he finished with the backstory, he told the other captain everything they managed to discover from the delta flyer with a slightly sheepish smile on his face.

To be honest, he didn’t really think that there would be consequences for letting Scotty take a look at the future ship. With all of the time travelling that they had to deal with, something like the temporal prime directive would never have occurred to him.

Looking back, it was kind of a dumb mistake (he could admit that). However, it was too late to change it now.

Watching the other captain, he had to give her credit. Throughout the entire ordeal, she managed to keep a mostly neutral face. He watched her facial expressions change at times, from horror when he mentioned the destruction of Vulcan, to guilt when he described how much they knew from the delta flyer. However, each and every single time, she quickly slipped back into a carefully crafted mask. While the future captain was clearly in shock from what she had learned, she did not allow her emotions to get the better of her. She was able to attentively listen to the summary in its entirety.

If Kirk had any doubts about her ability to be in command of a starship, they were gone now.

Throughout the explanation, Janeway’s head was pounding. The pain only got worse the longer the whole thing went on. She heard the words and understood their meaning, but forced herself to hold off on really processing them until Kirk was finished.

When he was done, she scrunched her eyes shut as she waited for the pounding in her head to subside. Once it did, everything seemed much clearer. Her brain started to sift through all the new information that she had just received. She felt unusually tired, but fought it out of a need to understand everything that happened.

While the anomaly led her to the correct quadrant, it was in the wrong time period. And the entirely wrong  _ universe. _ A parallel universe where _ Vulcan was destroyed.  _ It was destroyed by time travelling romulans from her time period, which Kirk eventually defeated before they were able to destroy Earth. Those same romulans also destroyed the  _ USS. Kelvin  _ on Kirk’s birthday, drastically changing his life, and also causing a ripple effect throughout the entire federation. Additionally, somewhere in the mix, was Ambassador Spock. Apparently he had already taken up residence in this timeline, although he left her timeline  _ after Voyager  _ got stranded in the delta quadrant.

She had another headache now, but it wasn’t because of the skull fracture.

The worst part, however, was that the temporal prime directive had been once again violated past the point of no return. But this time, _it was her fault._ Kirk’s crew had managed to discover quite a lot about who she was and her crew’s situation while she was incapacitated. While they did not have the whole picture, they still had _way_ more than they should’ve. They were able to acquire, and apparently understand, future technology. Technology that shouldn’t exist in the federation for almost another century.

The fact that Spock and Nero had already muddied the waters did not make her feel any less guilty. 

Her attempt to get her crew home faster had turned into a disaster of unimaginable scale.  _ ‘At least,’  _ she thought to herself  _ ‘at least it was just me and not the entirety of Voyager. I told Chakotay not to go after me if something went wrong. And if he tries, Tuvok is still there to stop him’  _

As she thought about her crew, another migraine made its presence known. This time it was coming from where she cracked her skull.  __ A wave of exhaustion and nausea hit her, causing her to visibly grimace.

Kirk noticed her discomfort. The captain realized that Janeway was not quite recovered and might also need more time to process things. He decided to switch the topic to the first lighter thing that came to mind. 

“You might want to change into our ship’s uniform. To look more….inconspicuous.”

Bones looked at him, blatantly confused as to where that came from.

Janeway raised an eyebrow in response. The gesture looked  _ way  _ too vulcan for McCoy’s comfort.

“Alright…” she said sceptically, but grateful for being brought out of her somewhat depressing thoughts. She could feel the unnatural exhaustion trying to bog her down. The captain forced her mind back awake through sheer stubbornness.

Kirk, however, noticed that he was losing her. He realized that he would get nothing else from her at the moment, and decided to try a different approach.

“I’ll schedule a briefing with you and my senior staff for 11:00 hours tomorrow. We can figure things out then. Does that sound okay to you?”

“It does…” she trailed off as despite her best effort to fight it, she slipped into unconsciousness. 

  
  
  


Once Janeway passed out, McCoy literally shooed his captain out of sickbay. The doctor was so tired that he didn’t even bother to yell at Kirk anymore. He just made a beeline for his quarters.

Looking at the chronometer that read 05:03, Kirk groaned. His shift started at 07:00. ‘ _ No wonder Bones is so pissed’ _ . 

Kirk also started heading back towards his quarters. They were  _ very _ conveniently located on almost the opposite side of the ship. As he walked, he decided to reflect on his observations of the other captain, and the conclusion that he had already reached.

While she could potentially be faking it, his instincts told him that she was genuine. Based on the logs they got from her ship (and they were not obtained easily, making them an unlikely plant), she was there by a complete accident. From what he observed when she woke up, she seemed surprised to be there, and actually looked regretful about breaking what she called the temporal prime directive. Even if she was lying or hiding something, Kirk was not exactly sure what she would possibly have to gain. To him, it seemed that she truly did not want to be on the  _ Enterprise _ . At least, not in this time period.

James T. Kirk knew that he was many things. Ambitious? Definitely. Egotistical? For sure. Reckless? Maybe. An asshole? ….occasionally. Those things have all come back to bite him at some point throughout his life. However, there was one thing that hadn’t failed him yet. 

His intuition. 

For now, the captain decided, he would (sort of) trust her.

Though, he figured that he might revisit that decision later. Preferably _ after _ he got his full ninety minutes of sleep.

Janeway woke up to bright lights and the soft beeping of medical devices. For a moment she thought she was back on  _ Voyager.  _ The captain was content to just rest for a bit, before having to have her inevitable argument with the Doctor about whether she was ready for bridge duty. 

Then the events from earlier that morning rushed back to her.

Abruptly sitting up, she attracted the attention of a nurse and Doctor McCoy himself. She glanced at a chronometer in sickbay, and realized it was around 09:00. While brushing off McCoy’s insistent scans,  _ Voyager’s _ captain was able to talk to one of the nurses about getting her a ship uniform. 

She snuck off to a bathroom and changed into the yellow command shirt (which felt odd compared to her usual red) and black pants. The nurse had tried to give her one of the dress uniforms, but the captain had vehemently refused. There was no way in  _ hell  _ when it came down to it, that Kathryn Janeway would be crawling through jeffries tubes in a skirt. 

Once she got out of the bathroom, now changed and freshened up, Janeway tried to leave sickbay. However, McCoy intercepted her with a “Where the  _ hell  _ do you think you’re going?!” before she even got halfway to the door.

With the threat of getting knocked out by a hypospray, Janeway finally agreed to let the doctor run a couple of diagnostic scans. The captain believed that they were completely unnecessary. She'd had  _ far  _ worse than that and still managed to survive. She did know that when it came down to her crew's safety, her own health took the backseat. It was a fact that annoyed her first officer and CMO to no end. This time however, other than a slight headache and an occasional stabbing pain at the back of her head, she  _ actually _ felt fine.

It wasn’t anything that a good cup of coffee couldn’t fix. 

The doctor though, didn’t quite agree with her sentiments. As he grumpily worked on taking the scans, the captain contemplated on what she should do with her situation.

_ ‘...I guess all that’s left for me to do is damage control. First thing after the briefing I should lock down the delta flyer. That way, they will not get any more access to its technology. In the briefing itself, I shouldn’t tell them anything more about Voyager’s situation. While they already found out quite a bit, plausible deniability is a great asset.’ _

Janeway’s view of an empty bunk, which she was staring at as she spaced out, got interrupted when a nurse walked by. She subconsciously shifted her focus to a sign hanging on a nearby wall. It detailed thorough organic decontamination procedures, though she wasn’t actually reading it. 

_ ‘Since Voyager won’t be coming after me, I should try to find a way back to her on my own. The longer I stay in this timeline, the greater the chances are of me corrupting it further. Though…..I do wonder why one of those 29th century time travellers hasn't come to arrest me already. This certainly takes the cake out of all the other instances of ‘The Janeway Factor’.’ _

Her train of thought was broken when she felt the doctor press a cold scanning device to the back of her head. Watching the doctor work, a new thought occurred to her.

‘ _ I wonder if parts of McCoy’s personality went into designing our EMH’  _

McCoy grumbled something under his breath. It sounded suspiciously like “damn stubborn captains”.

_ ‘Because….I wouldn’t be surprised at all.’  _

  
  
  


Eventually Janeway managed to get out of sickbay, and make it onto the rest of the ship. She noticed a couple of red shirts not-so-inconspicuously following her from a distance, but chose to ignore them. If a time traveler from the future showed up on her ship, she would be wary as well. Kirk was smart not to let her roam the ship freely. Though his security personnel could use a couple of lessons on stealth. Especially if even  _ she _ was able to catch them rounding corners after her. 

Since the  _ Enterprise  _ was docked as a museum back on Earth (and the ship was a greater part of her personal studies back at the academy than she would have liked to admit), Janeway knew her way around pretty well. Wearing the ship’s uniform allowed her to blend in seamlessly with the crew as she took the ‘scenic route’ to the bridge. Watching the hustle and bustle of a ship  _ without _ crewmen stiffly standing at attention when she passed by was a nice change. It certainly felt less….lonely. Watching people walk by, happily unrestrained as they talked about their latest discoveries and what-nots brought a smile to her face. Witnessing the daily motions of the  _ Enterprise ‘ _ back in her day’ was something few alive in her time period could attest to. The whole experience seemed borderline surreal. 

If it was up to her, Janeway could have easily stayed for a couple of days, just people-watching as the crew of the  _ Enterprise  _ went about their duty. However, watching the energetic motions of the young crew painstakingly reminded her of her own. She knew she had a duty of her own to get back to. Keeping her promise to  _ her _ crew in mind, Janeway headed to the bridge. 

  
  
  


The female captain made it to the bridge at almost exactly 10:30. The majority of the officers on the bridge did not acknowledge her as they were unaware of who she was. They probably assumed that she was a regular operations officer, reporting for duty. On the other hand, Kirk noticed her presence immediately when the turbolift doors opened.

The captain nodded towards her in acknowledgment, and stood up in preparation to call his staff into an early meeting. Before he could however, an urgent beep sounded from Chekov’s station.

“Keptin, we’re detecting ships coming from the anomaly.”

Janeway strode forward to stand next to the captain’s chair, intrigued. Caught off-guard by the announcement, Kirk answered slightly delayed. 

"Well, put them on screen."

A fleet of small ships emerged. The green and purple light from the anomaly cast a sickly halo behind them. There were three ships, to be exact, which all appeared from a distance to be brown in color. As they got closer, the backdrop of the anomaly’s light made their dark claw-like nacelles stand out sharply.

For Kirk and the rest of the bridge crew, the ships garnered no reaction except curiosity. Janeway's reaction was different. Kirk abruptly turned around when he heard a small gasp from his fellow captain. Janeway’s eyes were wide with recognition and a tinge of apprehension when she uttered one name.

“Hirogen”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaannnnnnd the fun begins! I'm not quite happy with the way this chapter turned out, but at least it's over. 
> 
> To make things a little bit clearer, I made a timeline for both ships. 
> 
> For Voyager, this takes place in the fourth season, in the middle of the episode “Demon”. In this story, after they put the ship in grey mode, they discover the Xaernan homeworld. Instead of going to the demon class planet to mine deuterium, they go to the Xaernan home planet to trade for it (which is a safer option that Janeway probably would have taken if the planet had actually existed). Consequently, they end up finding the anomaly. Through the magic plot progression powers of highly questionable science, they end up in the kelvin timeline. Yippee!
> 
> For the Enterprise-A I deviated from canon a bit more (if that's even possible). This story takes place after the Star Trek: Beyond film where the Enterprise-A was eventually constructed, with Kirk in command. However, I made a couple of things that happened in the books, comics, and/or STO void in this story. For example, the mission where the Endeavor encounters the borg never happened. While the crew was still on the Endeavor as the Enterprise-A was being constructed, they did not have the same time-travelling or Q-meddled missions as they had in the comics. 
> 
> Since this story takes place about five to six years after the events of Star Trek (2009), Kirk is just a bit less of the "frat boy" that he was in the first film. As a captain and as a leader, he has had more time to mature. With that extra experience, he developed some of his prime timeline counterpart's qualities. However, he's still far from completely being Shatner's Kirk. The difference makes him interesting to write.
> 
> I’m sorry if the changes bother anyone, but they give me a lot more room to explore things in the story.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of the Enterprise are put to the test against the Hirogen.

" _Keptin, we're detecting ships coming from the anomaly."_

_Janeway strode forward to stand next to the captain's chair, intrigued. Caught off-guard by the announcement, Kirk answered slightly delayed._

_"Well, put them on screen."_

_A fleet of small ships emerged. The green and purple light from the anomaly cast a sickly halo behind them. There were three ships, to be exact, which all appeared from a distance to be brown in color. As they got closer, the backdrop of the anomaly's light made their dark claw-like nacelles stand out sharply._

_For Kirk and the rest of the bridge crew, the ships garnered no reaction except curiosity. Janeway's reaction was different. Kirk abruptly turned around when he heard a small gasp from his fellow captain. Janeway's eyes were wide with recognition and a tinge of apprehension when she uttered one name._

" _Hirogen"_

* * *

Kirk opened his mouth to ask Janeway about her knowledge of the ships when a loud whistle sounded from Uhura's station.

"Captain, they're hailing us."

"Answer it lieutenant."

"Yes sir. It may take a moment, the universal translator is struggling. I….have never seen this language before in my life."

In the pause while Uhura worked it out, Kirk turned to face Janeway, hoping to probe her for information. He didn't miss how the other captain on the bridge now stood up taller, at attention. She had squared her shoulders and lifted her chin up, subconsciously trying to make herself look more intimidating as she stared at the empty viewscreen. Kirk prided himself on his ability to read body language and facial expressions; he wouldn't have survived Frank and various other unsavory individuals in his life without it.

And what Janeway's body language was telling him, was definitely _not_ a good sign about what was to come.

In his moment of observation, he missed the chance to ask her about the 'Hirogen' before Uhura announced that she got the translator working and put the communication on screen.

Kirk stood up from his chair and apprehensively looked at the viewscreen. It flickered on to show a wall of the alien ship. Taking up the space of the entire viewscreen was one large humanoid wearing metallic plated body armour. The captain knew for sure that he had never seen the species before. The lack of hair, strange ridges, and brown scale-like features covering every inch of exposed skin were something that he would unlikely have forgotten. Even if he was completely drunk, his eidetic memory wouldn't have failed him with something _that_ unique. A glance around the bridge showed his officers were just as confused as he was. Despite the _Enterprise_ crew's unfamiliarity with the species, the alien seemed to recognize them. Or more specifically, one of them.

"Ah, _Captain_. I see you're here." He spoke in a gravelly voice. It seemed almost friendly. Almost. Except, despite the neutrality of the statement, there was an undertone of unnatural glee and borderline bloodlust hiding beneath the words.

Kirk was almost surprised at the unexpected use of his title. For a split second, he thought that the alien was talking to him. He quickly realized however, that the alien was referring to the other captain on the bridge. His suspicions were confirmed by the fact that the Hirogen had his eyes locked on Captain Janeway, who was still standing to Jim's left. Now that he was standing as well, Kirk noticed that he was a good head taller than her, though that didn't make her any less intimidating.

From his angle next to her, Jim caught a slight tremor pass through the hand behind her back, but if he wasn't standing where he was, he would never have guessed that she was even slightly afraid. In that moment, she was standing up even taller and more defiantly than before. Her eyes held a type of confidence, determination, and _fury_ that might even terrify an Admiral into staying out of her way.

The only effect that it seemed to have on the Hirogen however, was to make him even more excited and bloodthirsty. He was now eyeing _all_ of them like pigs before the slaughter. Kirk didn't like it one bit.

Janeway tried to think of her options. With the Hirogen here, her job of maintaining the timeline just got a whole lot harder. Especially since she was on a ship in which she held no authority, and was a century behind _Voyager_ technology wise _._ And even _Voyager_ had previously been defeated by the Hirogen. ' _The smartest move would be to try to negotiate with them. It did work before, and maybe it will work again.'_

"Since you recognize me, I assume you were one of the ones who boarded my ship." The Hirogen grunted in agreement. "You are aware that we struck a bargain with your species, to exchange our holographic technology in turn for you leaving my ship, a federation vessel, alone." She decided to try tying the _Enterprise_ into the deal she previously made in front of him. If he equated _Enterprise_ with _Voyager_ , then maybe the Hirogen would leave them alone.

Various reactions were elicited from the crew with Janeway responding to the alien after he called out the 'captain'. Spock already knew who she was, and it seemed like Uhura had just caught on. Sulu and Chekov, on the other hand, were blatantly confused. Kirk half wished that he had a holo-camera; the twin look that his navigator and pilot shared was priceless.

The Hirogen however was not paying attention to the others on the bridge, and answered the captain with traces of what looked to be disdain on his face.

"Takirac was a fool for accepting your so-called 'bargain'. Those holograms are not the same as live prey. They act like real prey and can be challenging to hunt, but in the end, they do not leave trophies. Without relics, the hunt loses its meaning. His 'society' is hopeless."

Realizing that her first diplomatic method wasn't going to work, Janeway tried a different approach. Maybe she could find an individual bargain or trade with this Hirogen. Lifting her chin and squinting her eyes, the captain pried.

"If you disliked the idea of killing holograms so much, then why did you leave _Voyager_ when your leader accepted our bargain?"

The Hirogen looked at her in confusion, as if it was such an obvious fact that even an infant should be able to grasp it. "Because he was the alpha."

"But now, with this pack, _**I'm**_ the alpha."

' _Aaaaaand here comes the monologue.'_ Kirk mused to himself. With all of his experience over the years, ranging from random aliens to Nero and Khan, and even Kodos, the captain had practically gained a third sense for those. While he commended the other captain for trying to negotiate, it seemed like that would be useless now. Kirk started running scenarios through his head, preparing for what he was sure to come next

The Hirogen animatedly prattled on. " _I_ get to choose who we hunt. In the past, I would have hunted those _apparitions_ with our old hunting ground as depleted as it was. But now, I have discovered an entirely _new_ hunting ground. And why, why would I settle for _mere_ holograms, when there is an abundance of fresh prey just _waiting_ for conquest! I would be honored to have a klingon's skull or one of your human intestines hanging on my wall. While this ship here seems less…." he fumbled for a term to describe the century old ship "..advanced…than that _Voyager,_ it is still worthy prey. Especially with _you_ on board, captain! Let the hunt begin!"

The transmission abruptly cut out.

The bridge crew was speechless for a brief moment, the officers left in a mix of confusion, curiosity, and apprehension. Before any of the _Enterprise_ crew could react, Janeway spoke up. With the chances for negotiation depleted, there was only one option left.

"I recognize that I have no authority on this vessel. However, I strongly advise you to raise your shields. No matter what happens, they should not board this ship."

"I was planning on doing that anyway. Shields up! Red alert! Send out a distress signal." Kirk ordered, sending the crew scrambling.

"Aye Captain! They're arming weapons!"

Less than a second after the klaxon started blaring, the ship took a hit and shuddered. With the lack of time to brace, many officers almost fell out of their chairs. Janeway quickly grabbed onto the back of Kirk's chair to steady herself. If it was any other time, the _Enterprise's_ captain would have made an innuendo, but he had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

"Damage report!"

"Sheelds are down to 70%! Zhey are targeting our sheeld generators!"

"Initiate evasive maneuvers!"

"Aye sir!" Sulu responded quickly. The ship subtly groaned under the stress of the quick movements.

"Arm phasers and target their weapo-"

"That won't work."

Many heads on the bridge spun to face _Voyager_ 's captain, a sputtering Kirk included.

"They have monotanium armor plating. No offense Captain, but if my ship couldn't put a dent in it, yours certainly won't. It's a waste of energy."

"Alright..." Kirk grit out, choosing to ignore the jab towards his _Enterprise._ He remembered the fight against Nero, and how an entire fleet of ships couldn't even scratch a _mining vessel_. The ship took another hit. The crew were better prepared this time and braced against whatever solid object was nearby. Janeway had already moved to hold on to a railing to avoid a repeat of her previous awkward move.

"Sheelds are down to 45%!" Chekov announced, panicked at the rate they were depleting. What he didn't know was that the Hirogen were still toying with them. If they wanted to, they easily could have already quickly destroyed the ship with just their tetryon cannons.

The captain looked towards his helmsman.

"Sulu, can we jump to warp right now? Try to put some distance between us and them?"

Before the helmsman could speak, Janeway shot down that suggestion as well.

"It's no use, you can't out run them."

All heads turned towards her.

"Unless, you can somehow manage to go faster than warp 9.975." She ignored the shocked looks of some of the bridge crew to make eye contact with Kirk. Gray eyes met crystal blue, emphasizing the seriousness of her point.

"Well then," The captain began with what he hoped to be a pleasant smile, but just came off as passive-aggressive. "What do you 'suggest' we do?" He knew he needed her help fast, but he still wasn't a fan of needing to ask for help from people he didn't completely trust. Especially on his bridge _. While_ his ship was under attack.

Janeway had the beginnings of an idea, but realized that she would need time to explain it. If it was her ship, she would just order everyone around without wasting valuable time with reasoning. On the _Enterprise_ though, Janeway knew that the crew and their captain would only follow her if they believed in her plan as much as she did. Her first and foremost priority right now was to buy them, and consequently herself, some time. Quickly racking her brain for any possible ways to do so, she answered.

"I have an idea on how to defeat them, but I need time to explai-" The ship rocked once more "-n it. There should be an area of the anomaly's corona that creates a distortion in the space time continuum. Time will pass differently there, faster than in the space outside. It should be like the opposite of approaching a quantum singularity. If we're careful approaching it, we will be able to buy some time to make a plan."

Kirk looked towards Spock to confirm this. His first officer nodded with an 'intrigued' raised eyebrow.

"I am able to calculate coordinates which will maximize that effect. However, since this anomaly seems to defy established laws of space-time and is rather unpredictable, it will be difficult. The calculations will need to be very precise so that the ship does not irreversibly become entangled in the anomaly's gravimetric well, or cause the _Enterprise's_ hull to become severely strained by the gravimetric forces."

The captain told the Vulcan to get to it anyways, and turned towards his helmsman.

"Alright Mr. Sulu, start heading to the anomaly at full impulse! Once Commander Spock is done, modify your course towards the coordinates that he will send you"

"Yes sir!"

Despite knowing that Spock had one of the most brilliant minds in the galaxy, Janeway felt an itch to go over to the science station and help him calculate the coordinates. However, the captain knew that she would be more of a hindrance than a help in their situation, and anchored herself to the spot. Out of reflex, she picked up the giant cup of coffee (which miraculously hadn't spilled yet) that was sitting by the captain's chair.

Since the Hirogen ships were still some distance away when they started, and the _Enterprise_ was not far from the area it was trying to reach, the ship managed to make it to the anomaly without the Hirogen completely closing the distance. The space between the ships was very short though, at a buffer of just over ten thousand meters. The _Enterprise_ only had 4% of her shields remaining as they approached the anomaly's edge. Janeway thought they were lucky to have made it with even that much, as the Hirogen had not engaged their subnucleonic beam. She believed that the beam may have been unable to target properly due to the anomaly interfering with its sensors, and decided to store away that valuable information for later. After all, that beam was the main reason that _Voyager_ was so easily taken when she was ambushed.

It seemed that the famous 'Kirk Luck' was on their side.

As the ship got closer to the anomaly, the time distortion started to take effect. On the viewscreen, the crew watched as the Hirogen ships appeared to start moving exponentially slower, despite the fact that they were still very much closing in. A tetryon blast heading towards them decelerated to a crawl. The pursuing ships seemed to be almost at a standstill when Lieutenant Sulu brought the _Enterprise_ to a full stop.

"How much time until they reach us?" Kirk didn't skip a beat in asking his question once he saw that the ships were no longer an imminent threat.

Chekov ran a couple of calculations before answering. "I would say that ve have about ninety five minutes before zhey reach us, sir. Alzough, in zhat time, about four seconds will pass in zhe space outside zhe anomaly."

Kirk sighed. It was a lot more time than they had before, but in this situation they might need even more than that. He decided to ask Spock if they could move closer to the anomaly and buy some more time. His first officer however, was against the idea.

"If we are to move any closer, we risk destroying the _Enterprise_. The time distortion and gravimetric effects increase exponentially the closer the ship is to the anomaly. A small mistake may produce drastic results that may be irreversible. If the ship becomes trapped in the anomaly's gravity, it can potentially be destroyed by the strain of the gravimetric forces which the anomaly will exert on the ship's hull. I would highly recommend against such course of action."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to make the best use of the time that we have. First off, damage report?"

"Our sheelds are almost depleted, Keptin. Zey only attacked our sheeld generators so zere are no hull breaches. Zere was an explosion in engineering vith two casualties and four injured. Doctor McCoy is treating zem right now."

Kirk gave an almost imperceptible sigh at the loss of life. He would have time to mourn later though, right now he needed to make sure the rest of his crew made it out alive.

"Okay, Captain _,_ would you care to explain this 'idea' of yours?" Kirk asked, turning towards Janeway and smiling charmingly. He almost did a double take when he saw her. Was that his coffee?

The female captain didn't seem guilty in the least about the theft. She did seem troubled by something though. Whether it was because of the situation they were in or also the loss of his crew members, Kirk was not sure. It didn't matter though, because she immediately launched into a description about their unknown adversary.

"We're facing a pack of Hirogen." The bridge crew looked towards her, curious about the unknown aliens. "The Hirogen are a nomadic hunter species. Their entire society revolves around what they call 'the hunt', for all of its difficulties and rewards. They're after a challenge, and they want trophies or 'relics' from their conquests. In that nature lies one piece of the puzzle when it comes down to defeating them. Simply blowing up a ship like this one would deny them of both a challenge and a trophy. They won't be trying to destroy the _Enterprise_. They're aiming to disable us."

Kirk nodded. That made sense and correlated with what the Hirogen had already done. They had only targeted the shield generators so far. That wasn't that bad yet. Though, he wasn't quite sure that he liked the sound of those 'trophies'. Kirk asked the question that was on the rest of the crew's mind while he began thinking of new strategies.

"What happens if they do disable the _Enterprise_?" The Hirogen ships were pretty small, including their largest lead ship. Surely there wouldn't be _that_ many crew members boarding the ship like with the Krall. Maybe they could win in person to person combat?

Once he asked the question, Kirk briefly saw a myriad of emotions pass through the other captain's eyes. If he blinked he might have missed it, but it was clearly recognizable. ' _Experience'_ Kirk thought to himself. Janeway answered the question, her tone just the slightest bit graver.

"If they disable the _Enterprise_ , they will board the ship. Then, in what is a game to them, they will hunt down each crew member one by one. Despite the crew's best efforts to overpower them, the Hirogen will likely win in the end. They have far greater strength than the average human, and have had hundreds of years to develop and pillage advanced weaponry and armor which render most standard weapons almost useless. After they have slaughtered everyone, they will taxidermically preserve the organs of the crew members that they believe provided the most difficult hunt. For a Hirogen's status in society, the relics they obtain are almost as important as the hunt itself. They may keep a couple of crew members alive, however, so that they can operate the ship's technology."

The bridge crew except for the captain and Spock looked at each other in minute horror.

"Well then," Kirk began, _really_ not liking that option "How do we defeat them?"

"Frankly, we don't stand a chance of defeating them in either space combat, or guerrilla warfare."

The bridge crew looked at Janeway in a mix of confusion and slight despair. Janeway gave herself a small mental pat on the back. While she did not want to scare them, she needed to confer the hopelessness of the situation to get the crew to listen to her. Kirk took notice of her slight psychological manipulation of his crew. He understood where it was coming from and why she did it, but it still made him uncomfortable.

"However, there's something right here that can."

Chekov caught on almost instantly.

"Zhe anomaly!"

"Correct." She affirmed with a small smile "No vessel or probe survives crossing back over to the other side of the anomaly intact. All we need to do is to lure them in, and the anomaly will take care of them for us."

The bridge crew looked relieved, although skeptical.

"But how do you plan on doing that?" Kirk cut in. "If they're as advanced as you claim they are, we definitely won't have an easy time getting them to just go back through the wormhole." He made eye contact with her, slightly challenging the other captain.

"I have part of a plan, but it is a bit of a risk." Jim smirked at that. When was it ever _not_ a risk? "Since the warp engines will be next to useless when it comes down to escaping, we should utilize them in another way. If we vent the warp plasma, and ignite it with a modified photon torpedo, it will create a sensory blocking cloud. In a cloud like that, visibility is narrowed down to less than a thousand meters. After that, we just need to set a trap of some sort."

' _If you can't win on one field, change the field.'_ He had to admit, the cloud was a good idea. However, the question on just _how_ to set a trap still remained. It seemed that his crew was thinking the same thing.

Well, he wasn't considered a genius for nothing. The captain's mind filtered through tactical scenarios almost as fast as he could think of them before finally settling on one option.

"We do a switch out." Kirk spoke up authoritatively, catching the attention of the bridge. "If we modify a shuttle to emit the same energy signature and frequencies that the _Enterprise_ would emit, and launch it at the exact same time we put the ship into dark mode, they won't be able to tell the difference. After we swap, they will chase the shuttle like it's the _Enterprise._ The shuttle can do a couple of beta and theta maneuvers to make it _look_ like our strategy is a sneak attack. If we do it right, the maneuvers can confuse their navigation sensors. After that, we let them close in right behind the shuttle, and take a fast turn into the anomaly " With a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, Kirk looked towards the other captain on the bridge for confirmation.

She looked thoughtful before replying. "My only concern is about a technology they have, a subnucleonic beam. It can instantly scan a ship and disrupt its propulsion systems, communications systems, weapons, and navigational sensors. Since they did not use it, that indicates that their sensors are not working properly, maybe due to the radiation emitted from the anomaly. If, and only if, their inability to use the beam holds, and we add a sensory blocking cloud into the mix, they should not be able to tell the difference between the ship and the shuttle. It'll be tricky though. Their ships are very fast and they as a species are highly tactically minded. The only reason we haven't been disabled already is because they're playing with us. We have to let the Hirogen ships get so close to the shuttle that once it crosses the event horizon and goes off line, they won't have enough time to change course. However, if we let them get too close too soon, they'll end up in visual range and call our bluff." While she was pointing out the risks in the plan, Janeway had her lips curled up in a slight smirk. It was crazy alright, but it just might work.

At the end of the counter-argument, Kirk was still grinning. This wasn't the hardest thing he ever had to do. "Well, I've always been good at poker. Unless anyone else has a better idea, it sounds like a plan to me! Let's get to it people!"

"Aye, sir!" The crew chorused.

Spock mentally sighed. The plan had an approximately 5.74% chance of succeeding. However, knowing his captain, that would probably be enough. For reasons unbeknownst to the Vulcan, logic seemed to not apply to James T. Kirk.

After their declaration, the crew got to work. Chekov, with Sulu's help, began programming an elaborate flight path for the shuttle since remote piloting was not an option if they wanted to hide the _Enterprise's_ presence. They had to add various quick attack patterns and loops to temporarily confuse the Hirogen's navigation. The challenge was in making those maneuvers less abrupt than the shuttle would normally perform them, since its high maneuverability would be a dead giveaway that it was not the _Enterprise._ Additionally, the pair had to calculate how the Hirogen would respond to the shuttle's course, and ensure that the ship trio stayed at least over 1500 meters away from the shuttlecraft, far out of visual range. Uhura and Spock teamed up to work on finding out how to adapt the shuttle to mimic the standard signals that the _Enterprise_ would transmit.

It took some effort (and a good bottle of romulan ale) for Kirk to convince Scotty to agree to deliberately sabotage his "lassie's" warp engines, but the engineer eventually came around. After all, he would much rather have them be a little bit damaged than in the hands of an alien species dead set on killing them all. The Scotsman handled the preparations for the plasma venting himself before getting to work on modifying the shuttle. Engineering was a buzz with all of its officers at work, even those who were technically supposed to be off-duty. They only had around an hour to jerry-rig the shuttle into emitting a fake warp core signature and fit in a transmitter powerful enough to broadcast as many signals as the _Enterprise_ normally would. They also had to modify the phasers to use _a lot_ more power than they normally would so that they could at least have a passible fraction of the _Enterprise's_ strength. While certain systems in the shuttle could be removed or disabled like life support, the amount of energy that was saved was still a far cry from the amount they needed. Calling it 'crunch time' in the department would be the understatement of the 23rd century.

Sitting on the bridge doing nothing wasn't going to help anyone, so Janeway headed down to engineering to make herself useful. While she was primarily a scientist, over the years the captain had gained a fair share of basic engineering knowledge, and at this point anything would help.

A couple of minutes later, Kirk followed her. On top of engineering being his second specialty in the academy, he had lived a large portion of his life by a shipyard. Sure, he wasn't at Scotty's level, but he wasn't bad either. And he wasn't about to let another captain outdo him on his own ship. After all, turning down challenges goes against a Kirk's very nature.

-/\\-

All of the modifications managed to be completed almost ten minutes earlier than expected. Scotty was quite impressed. It certainly surpassed his expectations since his normal estimate for the amount of modifications they did would be around three days. The speedy timing may have been due to a sort of pseudo-competition that had formed between the two captains whom had invaded engineering. The warring captains had struck fear into the hearts of green ensigns and even shamed certain lieutenants. Of course, both of them would deny that such a thing had ever occurred and say that the progress was all on the crew.

After they were sure that their job was done, the two captains headed to the bridge to prepare to initiate their plan, leaving behind a crowd of relieved engineers. The turbolift ride was spent with Kirk trying (and failing) to learn the other captain's first name until the duo arrived back on the bridge. Once there, they were both back into command mode.

"How much time do we have to work with Mr. Spock?" The captain wasted no time in asking as he moved towards his chair.

The science officer looked down at his console to run a couple of calculations.

"If we utilize full engine power, it will take 6.8 minutes to clear the anomaly's distortion field, keeping time dilation in effect. Once we clear the anomaly, we will have approximately 3.27 minutes until the Hirogen ships change course and intercept the _Enterprise._ "

"Alright, Lieutenant Sulu, set a course out of the field. As soon as we clear the anomaly, begin venting the warp plasma in dispersal pattern theta five. Make sure that it disperses close to the event horizon of the anomaly."

"Yes Sir" The helmsman answered, working as a team with Chekov to get the ship in the correct position outside of the distortion field.

Once the navigator announced that they were out, Kirk commed engineering to give the order to vent the warp plasma. The ship's chief engineer confirmed that the plasma was now successfully being released from the ship with something that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle. Everyone wisely chose not to comment on it.

As it released the warp material, the ship glided and turned effortlessly. The large titanium vessel managed to resemble a gymnast twirling a long ribbon behind her, as she created an elongated tail of the glowing substance.

It had been a couple of minutes since the viewscreen had been taken over by the sight of electric blue plasma when Sulu announced that they had reached the coordinates which were strategically chosen to begin their maneuver. The captain acknowledged him and began giving orders to set the plan in motion.

"Make sure that the decks where forcefields are sealing off the bulkhead are evacuated, and then shut off power to all systems on my mark."

"Beginning confirmation process now..."

"Scotty, prepare to power-up and launch the shuttle on my mark."

"Aye sir" The scotsman replied, his voice sounding tinny through the communications system.

After a couple of seconds in which the Hirogen were just starting to come out of the anomaly's distortion field, Kirk got confirmation that all crewmembers were secure and the shuttle was ready. Bones complained about how he had to switch to manual ventilation for some patients, but the doctor would manage. The captain looked outside the viewscreen at the swirling plasma cloud. If this didn't work, then they would have willingly left themselves exposed and defenseless to attacking ships. ' _So it_ _ **has**_ _to work'._ He took a deep breath and prepared himself.

"Mark."

The lights on the bridge immediately cut out, cloaking it in silence and darkness.

What felt like an eternity passed in the quiet pitch black, the crew irrationally afraid to speak.

Even Spock did not wish to shatter the moment. Although, if asked about it later, he would say that he simply had nothing _to_ say.

After what was a matter of seconds in reality, the ship's red emergency lights kicked in. With the bridge painted in the dim eerie glow, the crew tentatively began speaking.

"Did it work?" Kirk asked. His voice was coldly neutral and his expression blank. The blood tinted lights were concentrated behind him, casting a shadow over his face.

"Zhe logs show that zhe shuttle vas successfully launched before zhe ship vent offline. I just hope zhat the plan vorks." Chekov half-whispered out.

Kirk nodded in response and spared a glance at the other captain on the bridge. Janeway was still standing and facing the bridge window. The view outside showed the wispy blue-green hues of the plasma cloud. The cloud had parted in a small area at the right edge of the screen, exposing the light of the galaxy's stars. She was staring pensively at the desolate lights, chewing her bottom lip in worry. With nothing else to do, Kirk turned and did the same.

' _Now, we wait.'_

-/\\-

They waited adrift for what felt like hours. The last use of the ship's thrusters had generated enough momentum to continue pushing them towards the edge of the cloud, exposing more stars as time went on. Luckily, they would still be invisible to scans unless a ship came around from outside the cloud and got them in visual range. The wait was spent in silence and solitude, the tense atmosphere making the crew's usual banter seem wrong somehow.

Half an hour after the shuttle should have completed its programmed path, the captain gave the order to power the ship back up. The crew complied hesitantly, worried that as soon as they did so the enemy ships might reappear.

Once all systems were successfully restored, Kirk gave the order to scan the area inside the dissipating plasma cloud. The only thing that came up on the scans was what Spock believed to be traces of weapon fire, but there was no sign of any ships. Most of the bridge crew sighed in relief. Their impossible plan had somehow worked.

"I think...we got them, Captain." Sulu announced, turning to face his captain while beaming hopefully.

Kirk opened his mouth to say something along the lines of "Well, don't jinx it now" when the ship suddenly rocked and all the alarms went off, heaving the crew to the right side of the bridge. Chekov recovered quickly and while muttering out a string of Russian, scrambled back to his station to read out the damage and confirm its cause.

"Sheelds are offline! One of ze Hirogen shyeps vas not destroyed!"

On the viewscreen, they could now see the single brown ship, somehow managing to loom over them despite its small size. Viciously, it fired off a rapid barrage of well placed blasts. The _Enterprise_ shuddered violently and Uhura's console exploded, throwing her back by a meter.

"Nyota!" There was visible panic in Spock's eyes when he ran to his friend's side.

Kirk did not get the chance to ask his first officer if Uhura was okay, when Chekov exclaimed the new damage report.

"Our engines, veapons, and communications are offline! Zere has been damage to zhe turbolifts and zhe escape pods! Zey have a transporter lock on us and are lowvering sheelds!"

The captain stared at the viewscreen in shock. His ship had become completely crippled in just a matter of seconds. They couldn't run, they couldn't hide, any help was at least two days out, and they couldn't even _fight back_.

Kirk didn't believe in no win scenarios, but this situation wasn't exactly looking good. A glance at the other captain's grave expression confirmed it.

They were dead in the water, and the sharks were circling in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotta stop with the cliffhangers don't I?
> 
> Anyways, I hope I did at least a quarter-decent job with writing out the tactical strategies, and that they somewhat made sense. I hate writing shallow villains and monologues, but it had to be done. For the plot. It was all for the plot. *dodges Hirogen rifle blast*
> 
> I spent some time making an outline for how the story is going to progress from this point onwards. It's going to end up being pretty long, so I'm going to start rolling out updates about once every two weeks to make the writing more sustainable in the long run. The chapters are going to be longer though, at around the 5000+ range, so yay?
> 
> Also, I just really wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed so far! I'm not lying when I say it makes my day, you guys give me the motivation to keep writing.


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